Hanagasa Dance Festival

Two weeks ago, the International Relations Committee in Ito helped to sponsor a festival for Haganasa Dance. Many volunteer dance clubs came out to show their stuff at the Ito Sky Dome (Sky Dome is like a shopping mall that is a long, covered atrium). They had traditional Yukatas (a light, summer version of the Kimono) and taiko drums to go with the music. Haganasa is a dance style where the dancers walk in line with decorative hats and they make stylized movements. I'm sure the movements have some kind of significance, but I couldn' find anyone to tell me about it. Anyway, this is a good chance to talk about the Japanese pentiant for celebrating.


There are many festivals throughout the year. Japanese people celebrate the changing of seasons, historical days, and religious holidays. They don outfits with bright colors and go out to enjoy each others' company. This is a good time to talk about a myth about the Japanese. I have heard it said that the Japanese are overly temperate and emotionally repressed. The large number of festivals throughout the year puts the lie to this statement. Japanese people enjoy a good party! Many of them drink like fish on these days of color and music. It was a relief for me to see that they can cut it loose as well as any Gaijin and better than some.

Here are a few pics of the festival:


This is a photo of the line dancers walking up and down the aisle in their Yukatas.

They even let the Gaijin join in the action! The International Relations Committee gave us all leis and Haganasa hats. Then they showed us a few steps and we jumped into the line and danced our way around Sky Dome.

The Dancing was great fun, and we got laughs and smiles from the other dance teams. They really enjoyed our willingness to join in the fun. Here are a few videos:



Here's the motion of the line dance.



These are the taiko drummers.



And, here is the goofy gaijin trying to do his best.